Friday, September 20, 2013

Remember CloudFone Thrill 430x, which was first featured on TechPinas last year? It's that best-selling Android smartphone with an extraordinarily large 4,160 mAh Li-Ion battery pack delivering up to a whopping 42 days of standby time and around 3 days of regular use?

Ever since that handset hit the market, I've been regularly receiving emails from CloudFone fans asking me when its follow-up will become available. They say that they want its successor to have a bigger display, to run Android Jelly Bean with a Quad Core processor, and to have an even bigger battery pack.

Well, today, the local electronics company finally grants all the wishes of its loyal fans by announcing its new flagship smartphone, the CloudFone Thrill 530QX!

Quoting our friends from CloudFone, "Nowadays, devices left and right are getting bigger screens, bigger processing power, and bigger memory; but does it actually make them better? Big screen? Check. The latest Android software? Check. Quad Core Processor? Check. Battery? Well, that’s a different story."

The package includes the unit itself, the charger, earphones, microUSB to USB connector cable, USB On-The-Go cable, warranty certificate and the user manual.

They added, "The battery of your smartphone, in a way, is the heart of your device. Your device won’t be able to use any of its flashy features let alone turn on without it. We beautify and swagger up the latest phones yet do nothing about its massive power consumption. We settle for one thing and sacrifice another, because we feel that it’s the price to pay for wanting the coolest and latest devices; but why can’t have both? With CloudFone, you can."

Check out the cool design of these touch-sensitive navigation buttons under the display.

The handset also features two powerful cameras. The main one at the back is a 12 MegaPixel shooter with autofocus lens and LED flash. (We've yet to confirm if it also has BSI sensor for improved low light performance.) The one in front, on the other hand, is a 5 MegaPixel cam with fixed focus, wide-angle lens, which should be good for selfies.

With depth of 11.8 millimeters, CloudFone Thrill 530QX is a tad thicker than most Android smartphones in its price range currently out in the market. But CloudFone has a good explanation for it. It's because 530QX has practically the biggest battery you can get on any smartphone out in the Philippines today.

According to the company, "Boasting a 4,500 mAh battery, CloudFone continues to come up with devices that people can actually use and enjoy without the worries and burdens of being tied down by their chargers and power banks. With that much power, there’s no more worrying about having to limit your game time, turning down your brightness, turning your WiFi and other radios on and off, constantly looking for an outlet to plug your charger into, and the best part: No more compromises. Smartphones are supposed to make their lives easier, and CloudFone lets you do exactly just that."

CloudFone Thrill 530QX runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system with 1.2 GHz Quad Core ARM Cortex A7-based MediaTek MT6589M processor. The phone appears to have the stock JB user interface with a few tweaks here and there especially in the camera application. "The device's dual cameras don't just take great photos but also have additional features," CloudFone tells TechPinas. "These include smile detection, burst shots, HDR, face beautifying feature, and picture grid, to name a few. It also offers gesture-based controls that gives consumers the convenience and the capability to play videos while doing other tasks (pop-up play), mute calls and pause music or videos by simply turning the device face-down (flip-to-mute), automatically answer calls just by shaking your device or placing the phone over your ear (intelligent answer), and a whole lot more."

Apart from its large and crisp display, good cameras, and big battery, one thing I like about CloudFone Thrill 530QX is that it comes with USB On-The-Go support and even ships with this free cable, which you can use to directly plug your flash drive to the handset and transfer files.

CloudFone Thrill 530QX with Dual SIM Dual Standby capability will be available in CloudFone stores and authorized retail partners starting on the 1st day of October, 2013.

Considering everything that this release offers for just Php 9,999, I really think that it will do very well in the market. Frankly, I think its design is a tad too simple (at least when placed vis a vis thinner phones with lush metallic accents) and the qHD resolution of its 5.3 display is a bit on the low side but then again, the real beauty of this handset is the fact that it allows you to do more and it gives you peace of mind in knowing that it won't run out of juice in the middle of the day. Right now, I'm just excited to have more time with the device so I can test and observe exactly how long its uptime actually is. Thumbs up, CloudFone!